Srinagar, Aug 5: With Srinagar Municipal Corporation failing to clear garbage from the City due to six days of continued curfew, a contingency of Jammu and Kashmir Police Thursday moved out with brooms to the clear the Airport Road frequented by VIPs who are learnt to have complained of a “violent look of the road”.
At 12:30 PM, the Hyderpora road witnessed an usual scene when a dozen odd men in Khaki, instead of holding guns and lathis, could be seen playing brooms as they jumped out of a police vehicle As the broom team cleaned the two lane road, another group of cops lifted the debris of road dividers damaged in the past days of protests in the area. Remains of burnt tyres were also lifted.
This was followed by a police tanker movement, which sprinkled water to get rid of the dust.
But the unarmed cops weren’t alone. They were guarded by over a hundred heavily armed cops including some senior officials.
Sources said some dignitaries including Central government teams driving down the Srinagar International Airport had complained that Airport Road wore a “Tora Bora look of Afghanistan.”
The sources said the SMC was informed about the issue but the corporation expressed “inability in getting rid of the mess due to prevalent circumstances.”
The shabby look was more of an embarrassment for the cops as the JK Police Headquarter falls on the same Airport Road, just half a mile away from the “Tora Bora”.
But the police says it was “just a sanitation drive to keep the road clean and make it presentable.”
“The sanitation drive was carried out on the instructions of the SSP Budgam, Aftab Kakroo sahib,” said a police official Mir Imtiaz of PP Humhama while monitoring the sanitation operations which lasted till afternoon.
The unusual deployment of police attracted the attention of people living in the vicinity who tried look out of their windows as to what was happening on the curfewed road. But before the cops went for operation sanitation, they ensured that nobody was watching as they asked the locals to stay indoors.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 5 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 5 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST